Second home hotspot of Abersoch has Wales’ most expensive street at over £2m a house
The second home hotspot of Abersoch now has Wales’ most expensive street at over £2m a house.
The village in Gwynedd, which has seen protesters by those concerned that local people are being priced out of the area, includes one waterfront street – Benar Headland – where houses cost £2,152,000 on average.
It was identified by Halifax as Wales’ most expensive street based on transactions between 2016 and 2021, using Land Registry figures.
In Cardiff, the most expensive street was Llandennis Avenue, where the average price will set buyers back £1,361,000.
The most expensive of all in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England was predictably in London where the average house price on Tite Street, SW3, clocks in at £28,902,000.
The news comes on the same day that Abersoch’s Welsh language school closes amid dwindling numbers of schoolchildren.
Gwynedd Council’s cabinet announced last month that they had voted to reject the concerns of a backbench committee and will forge ahead with the closure of a seven pupil school.
Pressure group Cymdeithas yr Iaith described the decision as “following the easy path of deserting the local community.”
Spokesperson Ffred Ffransis said: “It’s incredible that not a single member saw the value in the school as a focus for an agenda of rebuilding the local community.”
‘Availability’
On Monday the Welsh Government launched a new consultation as part of a ‘three-pronged approach’ to address the impact of second homes and holiday lets in some parts of Wales.
The consultation seeks views on how Land Transaction Tax (LTT) rates could be altered to improve opportunities for those looking to purchase permanent homes. It proposes that the Welsh Government could increase LTT rates for some transactions including for second homes and short-term holiday let property to reflect localised challenges in housing supply or high second homeownership.
Such an approach could be varied over time in accordance with market changes, the Welsh Government said.
“Ensuring there is sufficient availability of affordable housing in Wales is a priority for this government.,” they said.
“The high levels of second homes and short-term holiday lets in some communities with a potential impact on the availability and affordability of housing and the vitality of Welsh as a thriving community language has been much debated.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Stop all second homes in wales 🏴 kick all English party’s out of wales 🏴 it’s time for a new wales 🏴
Ffred Ffransis said: “It’s incredible that not a single member saw the value in the school as a focus for an agenda of rebuilding the local community.” It’s quite evident that Gwynedd County Council have given up the ghost as far as Abbasock is concerned. On its own leaving it as an enclave for over monied Mancs and Scousers might work, but these things never do. They are already taking over other coastal communities pricing out local people who have no hope of competing. Llywodraeth Cymru should get stuck in and arrest this creeping colonisation, assimilation and extermination of communities… Read more »
Can Plaid Cymru councilors be classed as collabarators!
Plaid is at a crossorads in many ways. It thinks it’s done well to be sitting along side Labour in Y Senedd. However it will be seen on llawr gwlad as complicit in some of the less agreeable decisions that inevitably get taken by Government. Worse than that it appears very reluctant to get serious about tackling the social ills and some of their very evident causes. More sensitive about image and posture rather than pursuing radical outcomes that work for ordinary folk here in Wales. Perhaps too attuned to opinion formers in Islington rather than struggling families in Islwyn.… Read more »
Abbasock??
Obvious! Phonetic English for those who can’t manage or be bothered to learn the guttural Welsh “ch”.
Only one solution. Cap the percentage of homes in an area that can be used in this way. Set a time limit for areas over the cap. Vary the cap according to local conditions. Institute a ‘two price’ model, as used in one of the channel Islands. One of these Abersoch residents referred to Welsh people as ‘vermin’ in a social media post.
Made the mistake of booking restaurant table in Abersoch in summer 2020 not having visited for 40 years. Restaurant full of loud mouth self centred individuals discussing their Range Rovers. Awful place – will never go back. Hope that Criccieth and Aberdaron do not go the same way, where at least Welsh still seemed to be widely spoken and there appeared to be ‘locals’.
I wonder if our Grayham is @cheshireset in disguise?! 😉
The decline of Abersoch from a peaceful Welsh village to an unaffordable playground over the last sixty years is a tragedy that couldn’t have been prevented prior to devolution; but nothing has been done to mitigate the damage in the twenty-two years since 1999, and that is a black mark against the Welsh Government. It would seem that public pressure has finally endowed the WG with the political will to prevent the complete loss of the village, but this will probably be their last chance.
England would requisition without compensation land and property in the National interest
Any one living in Pembrokeshire would agree with this
We still have land taken for mock trenches for the First World War
What is so wrong for Wales to requisition property in its own Country in its national interest